tihtavy  of  Che  theological  ^tminaxy 

PRINCETON    .   NEW  JERSEY 

'iif  VxV" 

PRESENTED  BY 

A .    G .    Cameron,  Ph .  D . 


-=6-^70 


THE 


DECLINE  OF  POPERY 


AID   ITS   CAUSES. 


AN    ADDRESS 


DELIVERED    IN 


THE  BROADWAY  TABERNACLE, 


ON 


iMcbncsbag  Cfocning,  lanttars  15,  1S51. 


J 

BY   REV.  N.  MURRAY,  D. D. 


3 


NEW    YORK: 
HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  PUBLISHERS, 

8  2   CLIFF    STREET. 

1 8  5  r. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  one  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  fifty-one,  by 

Harpek  &  Brothers, 

ia  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  Southern  District 
of  New  York. 


THE 


DECLINE  OF  POPERY.  ETC. 


V  lEWED  in  whatever  light,  the  setting  np  of  the 
Church  of  Christ  is  the  most  important  event  in  the 
world's  history.  It  was  the  introduction  of  a  new  ele- 
ment into  the  affairs  of  men  of  vastly  greater  power 
than  any  previously  known,  and  to  whose  influence 
there  could  be  no  bounds  but  those  of  the  race  and  of 
eternity.  At  the  point  of  time  where  the  lines  of  his- 
tory and  prophecy  met  and  blended,  Jesus  Christ  came 
into  the  world.  He  showed  his  estimate  of  human  con- 
ditions by  the  selection  of  one  of  poverty.  His  doctrines 
were  the  most  pure,  simple,  and  sublime.  To  show  that 
he  came  not  on  any  political  errand,  or  to  establish  a 
temporal  power,  he  declared  that  his  kingdom  was  not 
of  this  world ;  and  he  warned  his  apostles  not  to  con- 
found the  mission  on  which  he  sent  them  with  the  pow- 
ers or  prerogatives  of  earthly  princes.  Their  mission 
was  not  to  govern,  but  to  teach  ;  and  their  authority  was 
not  to  interfere  in  the  political  contests  of  the  nations, 
but  to  preach  salvation  to  all  men  through  faith  in  a 
crucified  Christ,  who  came  to  seek  and  to  save  the  lost. 
The  end  for  which  the  Church  of  Christ  was  established 
was,  by  the  diffusion  of  truth,  accompanied  by  the  agen- 
cy of  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  bind  all  men  in  love  to  one  an- 
other, and  to  subdue  all  hearts  into  obedience  to  God. 
This  was  the  sublime  mission  of  the  Church,  and,  to 
accomplish  it,  it  was  forbidden  the  exercise  of  any  au- 
thority save  that  of  its  virtues  and  graces,  and  of  any 
weapons  save  its  pure  and  simple  faith.  It  is  a  simple 
institution  of  God,  with  one  simple  end  in  view,  and 


4  THE    DECLINE    OF    POPERY 

adapted  to  all  times,  nations,  and  circumstances.  As 
it  came  from  the  hand  of  its  founder,  it  might  be  per- 
sonified as  a  cherubic  form  descending  from  heaven  amid 
the  children  of  men,  shedding  around  her  a  healing  in- 
fluence on  all  the  moral  diseases  of  society,  hushing  the 
spirit  of  discord,  like  a  new  sun  dispelling  the  moral 
darkness  of  our  world,  drawing  men  closer  to  one  anoth- 
er by  drawing  them  all  closer  to  Christ,  and  in  the  course 
of  her  progress  converting  earth  into  the  likeness  of  heav- 
en. And  had  the  spirit  of  its  founder  remained  in  the 
Church,  and  had  there  been  no  great  apostacy  from  its 
simple  faith  and  worship,  long  ago  the  shout  would  have 
been  raised  from  the  earth  to  the  heavens,  and  would 
have  been  echoed  back  again  from  the  heavens  to  the 
earth,  "Hallelujah,  salvation,  the  Lord  God  omnipotent 
reigneth." 

And  how  has  the  Church  performed  its  mission  ?  This 
is  a  pregnant  question,  and  one  which  opens  up  its  his- 
tory for  nearly  two  thousand  years  for  discussion.  As 
long  as  it  retained  the  spirit  of  Christ,  and  followed  the 
example  of  his  apostles,  and  obeyed  their  instructions, 
its  progress  was  gloriously  onward.  Its  influence  was 
soon  felt  to  the  extremes  of  the  Roman  empire ;  and  long 
before  the  last  of  the  apostles  of  Christ  went  up  to  his 
reward,  it  had  its  devoted  converts  even  in  the  palace  of 
the  CsBsars.  Through  its  martyr  ages,  when  the  Jew  and 
the  gentile,  the  philosopher  and  the  peasant,  the  bond  and 
the  free,  the  refined  Grecian  and  the  barbarous  Scyth- 
ian, were  in  league  against  it,  no  opposition  could  re- 
tard its  progress.  The  fires  which  consumed  its  martyrs 
only  revealed  new  paths  to  more  extended  fields  of  con- 
flict and  victory,  until  its  leaven  of  divine  truth  had  reach- 
ed the  most  distant  nations,  and  its  converts  were  found 
among  all  ranks  and  conditions  of  man. 

But  now  a  change  passes  over  the  scene,  the  result  of 
its  very  successes.  Almost  from  its  very  commencement 
the  Church  had  to  contend  with  heresies  which  chiefly 
involved  the  divinity  of  Christ.    These  were  successfully 

rp«is;+f>rl  •    nnrl  +1ip  nnnfrnvprsir  AYf^ifpfl    n,  vast  pnthlTsiaSUl 


AND    ITS    CAUSES.  r^ 

for  the  divinity  of  Christ,  and  a  profound  reverence  for 
every  thing  in  any  way  associated  with  him.  And  when 
Arianism,  as  a  vanquished  foe,  was  retiring  from  the  con- 
flict, the  great  Deceiver  changed  his  hand,  and  converted 
the  existing  zeal  and  enthusiasm  for  the  deity  of  Jesus 
Christ  into  powerful  agents  for  perverting,  depraving,  and 
undermining  the  entire  system  of  Christianity.  And  it 
is  here  we  date,  so  far  forth  as  it  is  a  system  of  religious 
doctrines,  the  rise  of  popery,  which,  in  all  its  ages  and 
phases,  has  been  the  bane  of  the  Church  and  the  curse 
of  the  nations.     But  what  is  popery  ? 

The  discussion  which  secures  a  right  answer  to  this 
question  naturally  divides  itself  into  the  two  heads  of 
doctrine  and  polity.  It  is  the  combination  of  these  that 
forms  the  system. 

As  a  system  of  doctrine,  it  is  clearly  and  fearfully  de- 
veloped. One  extreme  usually  begets  another ;  and,  re- 
verting to  the  point  of  time  already  intimated,  we  find 
the  zeal  and  enthusiasm  excited  for  the  divinity  of  Christ 
passing  over  into  inordinate  veneration  for  the  sacrament 
of  the  Lord's  Supper;  and,  for  its  defense,  the  doctrine 
of  transubstantiation  was  invented,  that  monster  absurd- 
ity, and  the  pantomime  of  the  mass  was  enacted.  A 
great  rage  arose  for  any  thing  and  every  thing  associated 
with  his  memory ;  and  relics  were  collected  with  incred- 
ible industry,  such  as  pieces  of  the  cross,  and  pictures 
of  his  person,  and  pieces  of  his  garments,  reverence  for 
which  soon  grew  into  idolatrous  worship,  to  excuse  which 
the  doctrine  of  relative  worship  was  invented,  or  rather 
borrowed  from  the  heathen.  As  superstition  advanced  in 
strength,  it  passed  over  from  Christy  to  his  friends  and 
followers ;  and  hence  the  multiplication  of  saints  and 
saints'  days  ;  and  soon  reverence  for  the  saints  grew  into 
adoration.  And  thus  the  apotheosis  of  heathenism  was 
introduced.  And  to  excuse  this,  the  doctrine  of  saintly 
intercession  was  invented,  on  the  plea  that  sinners  them- 
selves were  unfitted  to  make  any  request  of  God.  With 
these  corrupt  doctrines  came  in  corrupt  practices,  such 
as  forbidding  to  marrv,  forbiddino-  of  meats,  and  the  com. 


g  THE    DECLINE  OF   POPERY 

manding  of  corporeal  austerities.  And,  to  recommend 
all  this,  the  doctrine  was  invented  that  these  practices 
made  satisfaction  for  sin,  and  were  meritorious  of  heaven. 
And  lest  this  might  seem  to  derogate  from  the  satisfac- 
tion of  Christ,  sins  were  divided  into  mortal  and  venial. 
As  venial  sins  deserve  not  eternal  death,  and  as  men 
might  die  before  performing  the  necessary  penance  to  re- 
move them,  purgatory  was  invented,  where  penance  for 
venial  sins  might  be  completed.  And  as  punishment  in 
purgatory  is  not  eternal,  and  as  souls  sent  there  might 
be  redeemed  by  the  good  works  of  others,  the  doctrine 
of  works  of  supererogaticfn  was  invented.  The  good 
deeds  of  men,  over  and  above  those  necessary  for  their 
own  salvation,  were  laid  up  in  the  treasury  of  the  Church, 
and  were  sold  out  to  such  as  were  willing  to  purchase 
them.  This  was  by  far  the  most  profitable  doctrine  of 
popery. 

These  tenets,  artfully  linked  together  into  a  great 
(thain,  forged  for  the  purpose  of  binding  the  soul  at  the 
feet  of  the  priest,  were  quietly  received  in  those  days  of 
darkness ;  and  the  darkness  was  cherished  by  the  lock- 
ing up  of  the  Scriptures  from  the  people,  and  by  the  in- 
culcation  of  an  implicit  faith.  And  in  case  that  terrible 
book  should  be  unlocked  and  brought  out  from  under  the 
double  seal  of  a  dead  language  and  a  bad  translation, 
the  fictions  were  invented  of  an  unwritten  tradition, 
without  whose  interpretations  the  Bible  was  imperfect ; 
and  an  infallible  judge,  without  which  both  tradition 
and  scripture  were  unsafe  guides.  Thus  did  the  devil, 
s'tarting  on  the  high  wave  of  zeal  and  enthusiasm  for  the 
glory  of  Christ,  build  up  the  doctrinal  Babel  of  popery, 
the  foundation  of  which  is  laid  in  hell,  whose  top  reaches 
unto  heaven,  and  whose  dark  shadow  has  stretched  from 
shore  to  shore. 

In  the  most  favorable  light  in  which  it  can  be  viewed 
as  a  doctrinal  system,  popery  is  the  merest  caricature  of 
Christianity.  Its  ritual  is  addressed  to  the  eye,  and  its 
whole  worship  is  a  ludicrous  pantomime,  in  which  the 


AND   ITS    CAUSES.  7 

norant  attendants,  not  knowing  what  they  worship,  the 
spectators.  Popery  and  Christianity  are  just  as  opposite 
as  is  the  truth  and  its  caricature. 

That  you  may  see  this,  take,  for  instance,  the  doctrine 
of  Christ  crucified  for  the  sins  of  men,  and  as  making 
atonement  to  the  hiw  and  justice  of  God  for  all  that  be- 
lieve on  him.  It  is  one  that  lies  upon  the  face  of  the 
Scriptures.  And  see  how  popery  caricatures  it.  The 
doctrine  of  the  cross  gives  way  to  the  image  of  the  cross, 
which  is  perched  on  the  summit  of  its  churches,  and  is 
braided  on  the  backs  of  its  priests,  and  paraded  before  its 
bishops ;  and  to  the  sign  of  the  cross,  which  is  regarded 
as  possessing  a  talismanic  influence  against  evil  spirits ; 
and  to  that  most  unmeaning  of  all  mummeries,  the  mass, 
in  which  the  tragedy  of  Calvary  becomes  an  unmeaning 
and  loathsome  farce.  The  truth  is  gone,  and  naught  but 
its  caricature  remains. 

Take,  again,  the  doctrine  of  the  intercession  of  Christ 
as  our  mediator  with  the  Father.  There  is  nothing  more 
plainly  taught  than  that  he  is  the  only  mediator  between 
God  and  man.  And  yet  his  work  is  forgotten,  and  his 
mediation  is  thrown  into  the  shade  by  the  mediation  of 
Mary,  and  Peter,  and  Paul ;  the  holy  martyrs,  virgins, 
and  widows ;  the  holy  monks  and  hermits  ;  the  holy  doc- 
tors, bishops,  and  confessors,  some  of  whom  were  men  of 
God,  and  many  of  whom  were  men  of  Belial ;  some  of 
whom  were  ornaments  of  the  Church  militant,  and  are 
now  wearing  their  crowns  in  the  Church  triumphant; 
and  many  of  whom  were  "  wizards  and  jugglers,  the 
Mesmers,  and  Fausts,  and  Merlins  of  the  ages  of  moral 
and  intellectual  darkness."  Of  the  true  and  only  medi- 
ation of  Jesus  Christ,  the  millions  of  popery  know  as 
little  as  Chinamen.  The  truth  is  gone,  and  naught  but 
the  miserable  caricature  remains. 

Take,  again,  the  doctrine  of  regeneration.  How  plain- 
ly does  the  Bible  teach  that  we  must  be  born  again ! 
And  this  consists  in  the  renewal  of  our  moral  nature  by 
the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  through  the  instrumental - 
u.r  ^f  +V.a  +rnf,lv      And  this,  all  this,  is  effected  by  the 


8  THE   DECLINE    OF   POPERY 

papal  baptizer.  There  stands  the  robed  priest,  and,  as 
the  subject  for  baptism  approaches  him,  he  blows  thrice 
in  his  face  to  drive  out  Satan.  He  then  puts  blessed 
salt  into  his  mouth.  Then  the  priest  puts  his  spittle  on 
his  ears  and  nose.  Then  he  is  anointed;  then  he  is 
baptized.  Then  holy  chrism  and  a  white  cloth  are  put 
upon  his  head ;  and  then  a  lighted  candle  is  placed  in 
his  hand.  And  then  he  is  regenerated  !  And  this  is  the 
only  regeneration  known  to  the  system  of  popery !  And 
its  heaviest  anathemas  are  poured  out  upon  those  who 
would  deny  that  this  miserable  exorcism,  misnamed  bap- 
tism, fails  to  confer  the  grfffce  which  it  signifies  ! 

These  we  give  as  specimens  of  the  doctrinal  system. 
And  they  are  the  best  that  we  could  adduce,  and  the 
most  fovorable  to  the  system.  It  has  not  left  a  doctrine 
or  sacrament  of  the  Church  in  its  native  simplicity.  It 
has  virtually  annulled  the  Sabbath  by  its  holy  days— 
and  the  worship  of  God  by  the  worship  of  saints— and 
the  work  of  Christ  by  the  works  of  merit— and  the  work 
of  the  Spirit  by  the  manipulations  of  its  priests— and  the 
word  of  God  by  first  corrupting  it,  and  then  withholding 
it  from  the  people.  There  is  not  a  truth  in  the  system 
which  is  not  clouded  by  some  error,  or  which  is  not  cast 
into  the  shade  of  some  towering  superstition,  where  it 
can  only  maintain  a  sickly  existence.  Such  is  the  doc- 
trinal element  of  popery. 

And  equally  unscriptural  is  its  polity,  by  which  we 
mean  its  external  organization.  While  the  Savior 
teaches  that  his  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world,  the  object 
of  popery  in  every  age  has  been  to  make  it  so.  As  to 
the  external  organization  of  the  Church,  every  thing  in 
the  New  Testament  is  perfectly  simple.  Not  a  word  is 
said  about  prelates,  patriarchs,  cardinals,  or  popes,  or 
about  the  duty  of  implicit  obedience  to  them.  There  is 
a  government  enjoined,  but  it  is  as  free  and  as  simple 
as  one  can  well  conceive,  while  popery  is  as  despotic  and 
pompous  as  one  can  well  imagine.  And  as  it  has  no 
Ibundation  in  the  Scriptures,  the  question  arises,  Whence 
came  it?     This  question  is  easilv  answered. 


AND   ITS    CAUSES.  9 

As  the  Church  advanced  in  age,  numbers,  and  wealth, 
it  gradually  lost  the  martyr  spirit  of  its  founders.  After 
Constantine  put  on  the  purple,  and  for  reasons  of  state 
embraced  Christianity,  its  corruptions  rapidly  increased. 
The  Church  was  brought  into  an  alliance  with  the  state, 
an  alliance  which  has  always  worked  mischief  to  both. 
Its  government  was  modeled,  after  the  imperial,  into 
great  prefectures,  of  which  Rome,  Alexandria,  Antioch, 
and  Constantinople  were  the  chief,  while  a  sort  of  feud- 
ality was  established,  descending  from  patriarchs  to  me- 
tropolitans, archbishops,  bishops,  and  priests,  some  with 
greater,  and  some  with  less  power  and  dominion.  As 
each  grasped  for  more  than  belonged  to  him,  the  world 
became  convulsed  with  their  feuds  and  their  wars.  In 
these  feuds,  Rome,  as  the  ancient  metropolis  of  the  world, 
and  as  the  city  where  the  martyrs  shed  their  blood  like 
water,  had  greatly  the  advantage.  Its  bishop,  by  fraud 
and  duplicity,  obtained  the  pre-eminence  over  his  breth- 
ren.  The  state  courted  the  influence  of  the  Church  to 
assist  in  maintaining  its  authority,  and  the  Church  sought 
the  influence  of  the  state  in  extending  its  ghostly  domin- 
ion. Each  yielded  to  the  request  of  the  other.  The 
Church  rapidly  extended,  and  the  ambition  of  priests 
conceived  the  idea  of  governing  it  after  the  model  of  the 
state.  Rome  must  be  the  center  of  ecclesiastical  as  of 
civil  power.  The  state  had  its  Csesar,  the  Church  must 
have  its  pope.  Csesar  had  his  senate,  the  pope  must 
have  his  cardinals.  Csesar  had  his  governors  of  provin- 
ces, the  pope  must  have  his  patriarchs  and  archbishops. 
The  governors  had  their  subordinates,  and  these  again 
theirs,  down  to  the  lowest  office  in  the  state ;  the  patri- 
archs and  archbishops  had  their  subordinates,  and  these 
again  theirs,  down  to  the  very  lowest  office  in  the  Church. 
As  in  the  state  all  civil  power  emanated  from  Csesar, 
and  all  disputes  were  finally  referable  to  him,  so  in  the 
Church  the  pope  was  the  source  of  all  authority,  and  the 
final  judge  in  all  disputes.  Thus  the  Bishop  of  Rome 
became  the  Cajsar  in  the  Church — metropolitans  and 
natriarchs  were  transmuted  into  proconsuls — bishops  into 


10  THE   DECLINE   OF  POPERY 

magistrates -the  nominally  Christian  Church  into  a 
kingdom  of  this  world,  and  its  ministers  into  an  army 
o±  spiritual  janizaries,  depending  for  their  authority  and 
support  upoii  the  pope,  and  sworn  to  execute  his  infalli- 
We  will.     Thus ''the  wicked"  was  fully  revealed.     The 
Koman  empire  has  long  since  passed  away  ;  ages  ago  its 
mangled  limbs  were  strewn  over  earth  and  ocean;  but 
in  the  ecclesiastical  organization  called  poperv,  we  have 
the  Imng  model  of  that  form  of  government^  by  which 
the  Caesars  bound  the  nations  to  their  thrones,  and  by 
which  they  were  enabled  to  crush  at  the  extremes  of 
the  world  every  effort  to  bi^ak  the  yoke  of  servitude     It 
IS  an  ecclesiastical  despotism,  fashioned  with  great  ex- 
actness  after  the  civil  despotism  of  the  C^sars.     Because 
ol  the  vitality  of  the  religious  element  which  it  contains, 
It  has  long  survived  its  model,  but  it  is  among  the  things 
that  must  go,  and  is  going,  the  way  of  all  the  earth     "^ 
feuch,  then,  is  the  system  of  doctrine,  and  such  is  the 
polity    which,  when  united,  form  the  papacy,  or  the 
Church  of  Rome.     In  polity,  it  is  a  pure  despotism  •  in 
doctrine,  it  is  a  bad  caricature  of  Christianity;  in  wor- 
ship,  it  IS  far  more  heathen  than  Christian.     The  growth 
and  the  blending  of  these  two  systems  were  the  slow 
product  of  ages ;  but,  when  completed,  the  sun  which 
had  risen  over  Judea  set  at  Rome,  and  the  nations  were 
at  the  mercy  of  its  universal  bishop. 

But  how  came  the  pope  a  temporal  prince  ?     Partly 
by  donations  from  sovereigns  in  whose  favor  they  exerted 
their  ghostly  power ;  mostly  by  fraud,  of  which  the  Vat- 
loan  and  the  Lateran  have  ever  been  the  arsenal  and  the 
manufacture.     Who  has  not  heard  of  the  Decretals  of 
Isidore  ?     This  forged  and  Use  legend  narrates  that,  in 
reward  for  his  healing  from  leprosy  and  his  regeneration 
by  baptism  by  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  Constantino  resigned 
to  Sylvester  and  his  successors  in  office  the  free  and  per- 
petual sovereignty  of  Rome,  Italy,  and  the  Western  prov- 
inces.    Emperors,  kings,  and  people  were  incapable  of 
detecting  the  fraud  which  subverted  their  rights  and  free- 
dom, and  the  forgery  was  received  in  the  East  nnd  Wp«f 


AND   ITS    CAUSES.  2J[ 

with  equal  reverence,  and  is  still  enrolled  among  the 
decrees  of  the  canon  law.  By  this  vile  forgery  the  pope 
was  made  at  once  the  successor  of  Peter  and  of  Constan- 
tino, and,  in  addition  to  his  spiritual  power,  was  invest- 
ed with  the  purple  and  the  prerogatives  of  the  Csesars. 
This  hase  forgery,  proved  to  be  so  by  papal  writers,  is 
the  foundation  of  the  temporal  power  of  the  pope.  And 
while  popes  themselves  smile  at  the  credulity  which 
sanctioned  it,  they  yet  permit  a  false  and  obsolete  title 
to  sanctify  their  reign.  "  By  the  same  fortune  which 
has  attended  the  Decretals  and  the  Sibylline  oracles,  the 
edifice  has  subsisted  after  the  foundations  have  been  re- 
moved." 

At  this  juncture,  the  way  to  universal  dominion  was 
wide  open  to  the  pope.  The  deepest  ignorance  pervaded 
the  masses  of  the  people.  Deluded  by  legends,  and  false 
miracles,  and  vile  impostures,  they  were  grossly  super- 
stitious. With  few  exceptions,  the  world  was  governed 
by  weak  and  contending  princes,  who  fell  an  easy  prey 
to  the  wiles  of  cunning  ecclesiastics.  Western  Europe 
was  parceled  out  among  archbishops  and  bishops,  who, 
in  palaces,  equipage,  and  power,  were  the  rivals  of  prin- 
ces. These  had  their  parishes,  and  parishes  their  priests, 
whose  influence  was  every  where  felt  among  the  people. 
Thus  the  power  of  the  pope  was  every  where  felt,  and 
became,  for  obvious  reasons,  the  controlling  power.  The 
old  Jewish  custom  of  anointing  kings  was  revived,  and, 
validly  to  rule,  they  must  be  instituted  by  the  pope. 
Hildebrand  arose  and  gained  the  vacant  chair  of  Saint 
Peter.  The  opposition  hitherto  made  against  papal 
usurpation  yielded  before  his  amazing  energy  and  iron 
will.  Powers  hitherto  only  desired  and  sought  he  openly 
declared  to  be  his  by  divine  right.  He  asserted  his  pow- 
er to  be  supreme  in  the  Church  and  in  the  state.  And 
thenceforward,  according  to  the  canons,  as  says  Southey, 
"  the  pope  was  as  far  above  all  kings  as  the  sun  is  great- 
er than  the  moon."  He  was  king  of  kings  and  lord  of 
lords,  though  he  subscribed  himself  the  servant  of  serv- 
ants.   The  immediate  and  sole  rule  of  the  world  belonged 


12  THE   DECLINEOF    POPERY 

to  him  by  natural,  moral,  and  divine  right,  all  authority 
depending  upon  him.  As  supreme  king,  he  might  im- 
pose taxes  on  all  Christians,  and  it  was  declared,  as  a 
point  necessary  to  salvation,  that  every  human  being 
should  be  subject  to  him_.  That  he  might  depose  kings 
Avas  averred  to  be  so  certain  a  doctrine,  that  it  could  only 
be  denied  by  a  madman,  or  through  the  instigation  of 
the  devil.  The  head  of  the  Church  was  vice-God,  and 
men  were  commanded  to  bow  at  his  name,  as  at  the 
name  of  Christ.  The  proudest  sovereigns  waited  on  him 
like  menials,  led  his  horse  by  the  bridle,  and  held  his 
stirrup  when  he  alighted  f^  and  there  were  embassadors 
who  prostrated  themselves  before  him,  saying,  "  O  thou 
that  takest  away  the  sins  of  the  world,  have  mercy  on 
us."  And  here  we  reach  the  very  culminating  point  of 
popery,  when  kings  were  its  vassals — when  crowns  were 
its  playthings — when  kingdoms  were  its  gifts — when  its 
enemies  were  all  subdued — when  its  word  was  law  in 
the  state  and  in  the  Church,  from  the  Straits  of  Gibral- 
tar to  the  North  Cape,  and  from  the  interior  of  Hungary 
to  the  western  shores  of  Ireland. 

And  has  this  power,  of  such  monstrous  usurpation  and 
pretension,  had  no  decline  ?  This  question  we  can  best 
answer  by  a  brief  comparison  of  the  present  with  the 
former  state  of  some  of  those  nations  over  which  its  au- 
thority was  once  supreme.  We  begin  with  good  old 
J]ngland. 

We  select  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
when  John  was  king  in  England,  and  when  Innocent  III. 
was  pope.  The  question  of  investiture  was  not  yet  fully 
settled,  and  the  see  of  Canterbury  becoming  vacant,  the 
king  and  the  pope  had  each  his  candidate.  The  election 
devolved  on  a  few  weak  monks,  and  Innocent  ordered 
them,  on  the  pains  and  penalties  of  excommunication, 
to  elect  his  man.  They  remonstrated,  but  finally  obey- 
ed. And  the  pope,  sensible  of  his  flagrant  usurpation, 
sought  to  soothe  the  inflamed  spirit  of  the  king  by  a 
present  of  four  gold  rings,  whose  value  he  desired  to  en- 
liance  by  informing  him  of  the  mysteries  concealed  in 


ANDITSCA.USES.  13 

them.     But  the  insulted  monarch  would  not  be  so  ca- 
joled, and  he  opposed  the  election  of  Langton  with  great 
violence.     The  pope  exhorted  him  not  to  oppose  God 
and  the  Church,  and  threatened  the  interdict,  his  great 
instrument  of  policy  and  vengeance  during  the  Middle 
Ages.     John  persisted,  and  the  awful  interdict  was  de- 
clared.    And  suddenly  the  nation  was  deprived  of  all  the 
exterior  exercises  of  religion — the  altars  were  deprived 
of  their  ornaments — the  crosses  and  statues  of  the  saints 
were  laid  on  the  ground — the  priests  covered  them,  lest 
the  polluted  air  should  injure  them — the  hells  ceased  to 
ring,  and  were  taken  from  the  steeples  and  laid  on  the 
o-round — no  rites  were  administered,  save  baptism  to  in- 
fants and  the  wafer  to  the  dying — grave-yards  were 
closed,  and  the  dead  were  thrown  into  ditches,  or  buried 
in  the  open  field — the  rites  of  marriage  were  performed 
only  in  grave-yards — meat  was  prohibited — the  people 
were  forbidden  to  shave,  or  to  salute  each  other  in  the 
street.     The  execution  of  the  interdict  was  so  ordered 
as  in  the  highest  degree  to  strike  the  senses,  and  to  op- 
erate with  force  on  a  superstitious  people.     Such  was 
the  awe  with  which  this  interdict  filled  the  nation,  that 
it  seemed  to  the  people  as  if  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars 
had  withdrawn  a  great  portion  of  their  light,  and  as  if 
the  very  air  was  stagnating  around  them ! 

But  King  John  braved  the  interdict,  and  retaliated 
upon  the  bishops  and  priests.  And  next  came  thundpr- 
ing  from  the  Vatican  the  sentence  of  excommunication. 
Then,  then,  the  monarch  began  to  feel  the  misery  of  his 
state.  No  civil  or  military  officer  could  serve  under  an 
excommunicated  king,  and  he  was  left  without  support. 
But  yet  he  struggled  on.  Next  came  the  bull  absolving 
his  subjects  from  their  obedience,  and  excommunicating 
all  that  should  hold  any  commerce  with  him  in  public 
or  private.  Although  this  filled  his  cup  of  sorrow,  yet 
he  resolved  to  struggle  on,  but  finally  yielded  on  the 
threat  of  deposition,  and  passed  a  charter,  in  which  he 
resigned  England  and  Ireland  to  God,  Saint  Peter,  and 


24  THE   DECLINE   OF   POPERY 

Comparing  England  then  with  England  now,  when, 
for  a  comparatively  harmless  exercise  of  authority,  the 
pope  is  hurned  in  effigy,  and  is  every  where  denounced 
as  a  contemptible  and  doting  tyrant,  and  when  its  noble 
prime  minister  scoffingly  scouts  his  impertinent  inter- 
ference, we  ask,  is  there  no  decline  in  popery  ?  The  em- 
pire which  John  gave  to  Innocent  has  been  rescued  from 
his  successors,  and  is  the  open  and  noblest  antagonist  of 
the  Vatican  in  the  earth.  Although  in  her  established 
Church  there  is  an  admixture  of  the  popish  with  the 
Protestant  element,  yet  England  is  profoundly  and  pious- 
ly Protestant.  *• 

We  now  turn  to  France,  beautiful,  chivalric,  and  vers- 
atile, and  select  the  period  when  Raymond  was  Earl  of 
Toulouse.  A  dispute  arose  between  him  and  the  pope 
out  of  the  persecutions  instituted  by  Rome  against  the 
Albigenses.  He  was  refractory,  and  was  excommuni- 
cated. The  legate  of  the  pope  succeeded  in  raising  an 
army  against  him,  through  the  fear  of  which,  and  the 
desertion  of  his  own  people,  he  was  led  to  purchase  ab- 
solution on  the  most  humiliating  conditions.  He  deliv- 
ered up  his  castles,  divested  himself  of  his  sovereignty, 
and  suffered  himself  to  be  taken  to  the  church  of  St. 
Gilles  with  bare  back,  and  a  rope  about  his  neck,  and 
submitted  to  be  scourged  around  the  altar ! 

And  what  must  be  our  conclusion,  comparing  France 
then  and  now,  as  to  the  power  of  popery  ?  Between  that 
time  and  this,  other  thunders  of  excommunication  have 
rolled  over  the  Alps,  and  have  fallen  upon  this  kingdom. 
Within  our  own  day  one  was  fulminated  against  Napo- 
leon, but  its  sounds  died  away  in  the  air,  and  the  Corsi- 
can  sent  his  holiness  to  prison  for  his  impertinence.  And 
now,  while  nominally  papal,  it  is  really  infidel,  a,nd 
Voltaire  and  Sue  more  than  divide  the  empire  with  Pio 
Nono.  And  it  is  not  love  for  the  pope,  nor  veneration 
for  popery,  but  a  dread  of  Austrian  encroachments,  that 
has  induced  republican  soldiers  to  unsheathe  their  swords 
for  the  protection  of  the  tyrant  of  the  Vatican.  And 
acrnin  ■wp  nsk.  is  tlifivft  no  dpolhift  \n  nnnerv  ? 


AND    ITS    CAUSES. 


15 


Shall  we  next  advert  to  Germany,  the  cradle  of  so 
much  that  is  glorious  in  the  history  of  man  ?  We  select 
the  period  when  Henry  was  emperor  and  Gregory  VII. 
was  pope.  Henry  refused  to  surrender  the  ancient  right 
of  investiture,  and  he  was  insolently  ordered  to  Rome  to 
answer  for  his  crimes.  He  returned  insult  for  insult; 
and,  in  a  fit  of  vindictive  phrensy,  Hildebrand  thundered 
his  anathemas  at  the  head  of  the  prince,  excommuni- 
cated him,  deposed  him  from  the  throne  of  his  ancestors, 
and  dissolved  the  oath  of  allegiance  of  his  subjects.  He 
was,  in  consequence,  deserted  by' his  princes  and  people  ; 
and,  advised  by  his  friends,  he  went  to  Rome  to  sue  for 
mercy.  He  crossed  the  Alps  amid  the  rigors  of  winter, 
and  reached  Canusium,  where  the  sanctimonious  pontiff 
resided  with  Matilda,  the  most  tender  and  loving  of  all 
the  daughters  of  the  Church.  The  emperor  was  admit- 
ted without  his  guards  into  an  outer  court  of  the  castle, 
where  he  stood  for  three  successive  days  in  the  open  air, 
with  bare  feet,  and  head  uncovered,  and  with  only  a 
wretched  piece  of  woolen  cloth  thrown  around  him  to 
cover  his  nakedness.  He  was  admitted  on  the  fourth 
day  into  the  presence  of  his  holiness,  who,  with  great  re- 
luctance, gave  him  absolution. 

Here  we  have,  in  picture,  before  us  the  supremacy 
which  popery  once  wielded  in  Germany;  but  how  is  it 
now  ?  Great  events  have  occurred  in  Germany  since. 
There  Luther  found  and  read  the  Bible.  The  art  of 
printing  was  there  discovered.  The  claims  and  doctrines 
of  popery  have  there  been  discussed  by  great  and  earn- 
est minds.  There  the  battles  of  the  Reformation  were 
ibuglit ;  and  the  Thirty  Years'  War  whitened  and  fatten- 
ed all  its  fields  with  the  bones  and  blood  of  the  slain. 
And  from  these  wars  Germany  came  forth  free  and  inde- 
pendent. And  at  the  present  hour  (save  dotard  Austria, 
whose  recent  Hungarian  barbarity  should  cast  it  beyond 
the  pale  of  civilized  nations)  Germany  is  Protestant. 
\^"hen  Celestine  had  completed  the  ceremony  of  coronat- 
ing the  son  of  Barbarossa,  in  Saint  Peter's,  as  Emperor  of 
Germany,  he  raised  his  foot  and  kicked  off  the  crown 


16 


THE    DECLINE    OF    POPERY 


which  he  had  placed  on  his  head,  to  show  that  he  had 
the  power  of  taking  away  as  well  as  of  conferring  im- 
perial dignity.  Such  an  indignity  in  our  day  would  in- 
duce even  priest-ridden,  benighted  Austria  to  send  down 
her  butcher  Haynau  to  hang  up  Pio  Nono  as  a  sacrifice 
to  her  vengeance.  Nor  would  all  Italy  furnish  a  brewer 
to  beard  him  for  so  doing.  And  again  we  ask,  is  there 
no  decline  in  popery  ? 

Shall  we  next  advert  to  Ireland,  greenest  isle  of  the 
ocean,  where  a  double  despotism,  political  and  religious, 
pressing  upon  its  people  for  centuries,  has  been  unable 
to  cool  the  ardor  of  their  hearts,  or  to  quench  the  bright- 
ness of  their  intellect  ?  It  remained  in  the  quiet  and 
peaceful  enjoyment  of  its  religion,  although  often  con- 
vulsed by  internal  discord,  after  its  conversion  to  Chris- 
tianity, until  the  reign  of  Henry  II.  of  England.  Adrian, 
an  Englishman,  was  then  pope ;  and,  to  gain  political 
ends,  he  gave  Ireland  over  into  the  hands  of  Henry,  and 
annexed  it,  by  public  decree,  to  England.  This  decree 
was  subsequently  ratified  by  Pope  Alexander,  on  two 
conditions:  first,  that  Henry  should  "convert  the  bestial 
men  over  to  the  faith ;"  and  second,  that  he  should  pay 
the  tax  of  a  penny  for  each  hearth  in  the  kingdom  to  the 
Holy  See,  and  collect  it  from  the  people.  This  was  the 
"  Peter's  Pence,"  so  called  from  the  fact  that  it  was  col- 
lected on  the  festival  of  Saint  Peter.  Here  is  the  spring- 
head of  all  Ireland's  woes.  Henry,  in  obedience  to  the 
pope's  decree,  invaded  Ireland  as  his  bloody  missionary ; 
bound  her  in  papal  chains,  and  laid  her  at  the  foot  of  the 
-English  throne ;  and  there  she  has  lain  until  this  day, 
bleeding  and  groaning  in  her  misery,  and  all  through 
the  arrogance,  and  perfidy,  and  policy  of  the  pope ! 

Her  people  fell  soon  an  easy  prey  to  the  seductions  of 
Rome.  Ignorant  and  superstitious,  they  were  led  easily 
to  adopt  a  faith  which  in  its  rites  bore  so  near  a  resem- 
blance to  those  of  their  ancient  Druidism.  When  Henry 
VIII.  sought  to  introduce  his  reformation  into  Ireland,  he 
was  vigorously  opposed  by  the  clergy  and  the  people, 
who  insisted  that  "  the  Holv  Island"  belonged  only  to  the 


AND    ITS    CAUSES. 


17 


pope ;  and  the  Vatican  thundered  its  anathemas  against 
all  who  should  obey  their  sovereign,  or  who  should  fail 
to  defend  the  supremacy  of  the  pope  in  things  temporal 
as  well  as  spiritual.  And,  subsequently,  encouraged  by 
Charles  and  his  popish  queen,  and  their  superior  priests, 
that  awful  massacre  of  the  Protestants  was  perpetrated 
by  the  papists,  the  narrative  of  which,  even  at  this  re- 
mote period,  can  not  be  read  without  a  chill  of  horror. 

And  what  is  the  state  even  of  Ireland  now  ?  To  be 
sure  its  masses  are  the  adherents  of  popery ;  and  that 
the  pope  and  his  priests  should  permit  those  masses  for 
nearly  ten  centuries  to  remain  in  "  bestial"  ignorance, 
the  victims  of  the  most  gross  deceptions,  forms  an  argu- 
ment against  the  system  which  all  can  see  and  feel.  But 
the  mind  of  Ireland  is  Protestant.  Its  industry,  its  com- 
mercial enterprise,  its  literature,  is  Protestant.  The  peo- 
ple are  refusing  any  longer  to  be  driven  as  sheep  before 
the  priests.  Protestantism,  long  neglectful  of  its  mission 
to  that  people,  has  entered  upon  its  work.  Its  benign 
influence  has  already  reached  even  the  wilds  of  Cone- 
mara.  The  pope  is  alarmed,  and  he  has  sent  his  rescript 
against  the  Queen's  College.  The  bishops  are  alarmed, 
and  hence  their  recent  synod  at  Thurles.  Feeling  that 
Ireland  needs,  at  this  crisis,  a  stronger  guardian  saint  than 
is  he  under  whose  patronage  it  has  reposed  for  ages,  the 
sages  of  Thurles  have  absolutely  deposed  good  old  Saint 
Patrick,  and  have  elected  the  Virgin  Mary  in  his  place. 
And  again  we  ask,  is  there  no  decline  in  popery  ? 

But  we  will  pass  over  the  other  nations  of  Europe,  as 
to  which  statements  similar  to  these  could  be  made, 
briefly  to  consider  the  state  of  Italy  itself  There,  for 
twelve  centuries,  popery  has  been  in  power.  There  is 
the  fabled  chair  of  Saint  Peter ;  there  is  the  center  of 
unity  ;  there  is  the  person  and  court  of  the  pope  ;  there 
the  people  have  been  cloyed  and  stupefied  for  ages  with 
priestly  processions  and  splendid  masses — with  feasts  and 
fasts — with  holy  days  and  carnivals ;  there  the  Muses 
have  been  bribed  to  lend  their  aid  to  priestly  devices ; 


18 


THE   DECLINE   OF   POPERY 


power  to  give  such  life,  and  beauty,  and  brilliancy  to  the 
creations  of  superstition,  as  to  ravish  and  carry  captive 
the  senses.     And  v^^hile  the  Italian  neck  has  often  felt 
the  galling-  of  the  papal  yoke,  and  the  Italian  people  often 
manifested  that  it  was  difficult  to  bear  it,  yet,  of  all  the 
countries  upon  the  earth,  there  popery  has  been  the  most 
securely  intrenched.     It  has  had  the  moulding  of  the 
mind  and  the  conscience  of  the  people,  and  of  every  in- 
stitution of  the  country,  and  without  let  or  hinder ance. 
Surely  here,  if  any  where,  we  should  find  the  evidences 
of  strong  life,  and  the  pulsations  of  a  strong  and  living 
heart.     But  what  are  the  facts  in  the  case  ?     Take  away 
the  priests  and  their  dependents,  and  there  is  not  a  city 
in  Europe  where  the  pope  and  his  minions  are  more  sin- 
cerely contemned.     But  a  few  brief  months  ago,  under 
the  pretense  of  retiring  for  devotion,  he  withdrew  from 
his  friends,  changed  his  garments  for  those  of  a  servant, 
and  after  putting  a  lady  into  the  carriage,  ascended  to  the 
box  of  the  coachman,  and  thus  fled  from  Rome  to  Gaeta. 
And  why  ?     His  papal  subjects  would  have  reformation 
in  the  state  and  in  the  Church.     And  did  they  invite 
back  the  father  of  the  faithful  ?     Far  otherwise.     Feel- 
ing like  singing  a  Te  Deum  for  their  blessed  deliverance, 
they  organized  a  free  government ;  and  that  government 
was  only  yielded,  and  the  pope  was  only  permitted  to 
return,  at  the  mouth  of  French  cannon  and  at  the  point 
of  the  bayonet  of  a  French  soldiery.     And  Pius  IX.  and 
his  cardinals  are  only  protected  from  expulsion,  and  per- 
haps from  death,  by  the  jealousy  of  other  nations,  who, 
fearing  the  influence  of  a  Roman  republic  on  the  sur- 
rounding kingdoms,  and  knowing  that  the  balance  of 
power  in  Europe  would  be  greatly  changed  if  any  of  the 
great  powers  should  gain  possession  of  the  Peninsula, 
have  wickedly  resolved  to  compel  the  old  Romans  to  sub- 
mit to  the  government  of  the  triple  crown.     If,  at  this 
hour,  the  Italian  people  could  freely  express  themselves, 
we  fearlessly  assert  that  the  majority  of  them  would  tri- 
umphantly declare  themselves  against  popery.     They 


A„J.,.1 AQ       ■M7'l^o+ Vi, 


AND   ITS   CAUSES. 


19 


they  ever  received  from  it  but  degradation  ?  When  the 
traveler  in  search  of  the  fields  and  scenes  rendered  classic 
by  the  muse  of  history  finds  a  man  and  a  mule  yoked 
together  in  the  same  harness  and  driven  by  the  same 
goad,  then  he  knows  for  a  certainty  that  he  has  entered 
the  States  of  the  Church  !  And  v^hat  can  popery  or  its 
priests  expect  but  indignant  rejection  at  the  hands  of  a 
noble  people  that  they  have  so  deeply  degraded  ? 

If  additional  proof  is  needed  of  the  decline  of  this 
spiritual  power,  we  would  point  to  the  present  state  of 
papal  countries.  Spain  and  Portugal  are  claimed  as  pa- 
pal countries,  but  to  what  extent  are  they  so  ?  There  is 
an  external  submission  to  the  claims  of  popery,  but  the 
masses  of  the  people  are  nearer  a  savage  than  a  civilized 
state,  and  are  at  least  as  much  pagan  as  Christian.  The 
same  may  be  said  of  the  states  of  South  America,  and 
of  every  state  within  the  bounds  of  nominal  Christendom 
from  which  the  Protestant  element  has  been  excluded. 
The  picture  of  one  is  the  picture  of  all.  There  is  no  Bi- 
ble among  the  people — no  instruction  on  the  Sabbath — 
no  preaching  of  the  Gospel — no  schools  for  the  lower 
classes — no  keeping  holy  of  the  seventh  day.  The  mum- 
bling of  masses — the  parading  of  the  host — the  ringing 
of  convent  bells,  and  the  flitting  about  of  lazy  and  vi- 
cious monks  and  friars,  multitudes  of  whom  have  fled, 
like  Joab,  to  the  altar  from  the  pursuit  of  justice,  and 
who,  under  a  cowl  and  cassock,  are  two-fold  more  the 
children  of  sin  than  they  were  before — these,  these  are 
the  only  means  of  instruction,  in  the  things  of  God,  en- 
joyed by  the  people.  And  the  upper  third  of  the  entire 
population  think  no  more  of  going  to  the  confessional  or 
to  a  mass-house  than  you  or  I  think  of  repeating  the  ab- 
surd "  Litany  of  our  Lady  of  Loretto,"  so  piously  recom- 
mended to  the  faithful  by  our  friend  of  Saint  Patrick's. 
And  the  piety  of  the  priesthood  in  these  countries  is 
about  on  a  par  with  that  of  the  sanguinary  pope,  who, 
when  he  ordered  some  of  his  refractory  bishops  and  sub- 
jects  to  the  torture,  walked,  bare  headed,  reading  his 
Tnissfl.l  wifbin  bparino-  of  their  dviner  ffroans.     In  no  nor- 


20 


THE    DECLINE   OF   POPERY 


tions  of  the  earth  is  popery  so  low,  so  declining,  so  utterly 
destitute  of  vitality  as  in  those  countries  where  the  peo- 
ple know  no  other  form  of  religion.  There  it  is  as  dry, 
fruitless,  and  withered  as  is  a  forest  through  which  the 
winds  of  twenty  winters,  unseparated  hy  a  solitary 
spring  or  summer,  have  whistled ;  or,  to  change  the  fig- 
ure, in  those  countries  it  is  like  unto  a  bladder  once 
blown  to  its  full  extension,  but  now  dry,  beyond  the  pow- 
er of  holy  oil  or  water  to  soften,  and  rent  beyond  the 
power  of  priests  to  patch  up,  and  utterly  incapable  of  a 
new  inflation.  Ignorance  and  superstition  are  its  only 
supports,  and  it  will  as  certainly  fall  before  the  advances 
of  light  and  truth  as  did  Dagon  before  the  ark  of  God. 

But  is  there  no  life  at  all  in  the  system  ?  There  is. 
Where,  then,  is  it  to  be  found  ?  Not  within  the  ancient 
metropolis  of  the  world,  whose  fallen  columns,  decaying 
arches,  and  tottering  walls  are  but  the  types  of  popery 
throughout  the  earth — not  in  stupid  Austria,  nor  in  mock- 
ing France,  nor  in  debauched  Spain,  nor  in  the  feeble, 
conflicting,  and  semi-savage  states  of  our  southern  hemi- 
sphere, but  amid  Protestant  institutions,  where  an  open 
Bible,  a  free  press,  freedom  of  discussion,  an  intelligent 
Christian  ministry,  and  the  general  prevalence  of  knowl- 
edge, compel  its  priests  to  cultivate  external  decency,  to 
preach  to  the  people,  and  to  defend  it  as  best  they  can. 
Hence,  while  in  purely  papal  countries  the  superstition 
has  reached  the  years  of  its  dotage,  and  is  laboring  un- 
der the  multiplied  infirmities  that  attend  the  close  of  a 
dissolute  life,  there  is  a  reviving  of  its  ancient  spirit  of 
-adventure  and  bold  imposture  in  Britain  and  the  United 
States.  The  starving  papal  Irish  are  pouring  into  En- 
gland, and,  to  keep  them  together,  a  cardinal  and  a  new 
batch  of  bishops  was  deemed  necessary.  The  papal  na- 
tions of  Europe  are  pouring  in  their  surplus  population 
on  us  in  torrents,  and,  to  prevent  their  uniting  with  our 
people  as  do  the  rivers  with  the  ocean,  bishops  and  arch- 
bishops are  multiplied.  But  all  will  not  do.  True,  a 
few  dreamy  Puseyites,  who  sigh  after  the  return  of  a  the- 
ocracv  and  of  a  visible  unitv.  and  who  iudsre  of  religion 


AND    ITS    CAUSES. 


^1 


as  many  silly  people  do  of  men,  by  the  clothes  which 
they  wear  and  their  pretensions,  have  gone  to  Rome. 
Some  of  them,  like  Father  Ignatius,  should  have  gone 
to  an  asylum.  And  this  is  made  the  occasion  of  feeble 
and  fallacious  harangues  on  the  decline  of  Protestantism. 
But  all  this  is  simply  the  whistling  of  timid  boys  when 
passing  a  grave-yard  of  a  dark  night.  The  object  is  to 
cheer  up  their  drooping  spirits,  and  to  prevent,  by  rais- 
ing false  issues,  the  enlightening,  elevating,  converting, 
and  assimilating  influence  of  Protestantism  on  the  mass- 
es of  the  faithful.  Where  one  returns  to  Rome,  there 
are  one  hundred  that  desert  it. 

Such  being  the  evidence  of  the  decline  of  popery  in  all 
the  earth,  we  have  but  a  few  words  to  say  as  to  its  causes. 

One  of  these  causes  is  the  circulation  of  the  Bible. 
Some  how  or  other  it  has  become  an  article  of  the  pop- 
ular faith,  that  the  will  of  God,  as  revealed  in  the  Bible, 
is  the  foundation  of  all  true  religion.  What  the  Bible 
teaches  is  true ;  what  it  does  not  teach  is  a  doctrine  of 
men,  and  obedience  to  it  is  will  worship.  And  to  teach 
contrary  to  the  Bible  is  to  rob  God  of  his  authority  as 
legislator,  and  usually  ends  in  robbing  man  of  the  privi- 
leges secured  to  him  by  the  true  religion.  Hence  the 
importance  of  the  circulation  of  the  Bible,  that  all  may 
know  whether  they  are  taught  the  true  religion,  or 
whether  they  are  imposed  upon  by  old  wives'  fables. 

How  strange  and  strong  the  impressions  made  upon 
the  mind  of  an  intelligent  papist  by  a  careful  reading  of 
the  Bible  !  As  he  turns  from  page  to  page,  he  is  amazed 
that  he  should  have  been  so  duped  as  to  receive  as  the 
religion  of  God  the  teachings  of  popery.  With  his  Bible 
open  in  his  hand,  he  goes  to  a  priest  with  questions  such 
as  these :  Your  reverence,  does  the  Church  teach  the  celi- 
bacy of  the  clergy,  and  anathematize  all  who  do  not  re- 
ceive it  as  a  true  and  wholesome  doctrine  ?  Certainly, 
is  the  reply.  Tell  me,  then,  what  does  this  mean :  "  Pe- 
ter's wife's  mother  laid,  and  sick  of  a  fever  ?"  And  what 
do  these  passages  mean :  "  A  bishop  must  be  the  hus- 
band of  one  wife,  having  his  children  in  subjection:" 


22 


THE    DECLINE    OF    POPERY 


"  let  the  deacons  be  the  husbands  of  one  wife  ?"  If  Pope 
Peter  had  a  wife,  why  should  not  Pio  Nono  ?  If  bishops 
and  deacons  are  commanded  to  have  wives,  why  would 
it  be  wrong  in  your  reverence  to  have  one  ?  And  what 
can  he  say  ? 

Again  he  asks,  Does  the  Church  teach  the  doctrine  of 
confession  of  the  people  to  the  priest  ?  Certainly,  is  the 
reply.  Tell  me,  then,  what  does  this  passage  mean : 
"  Confess  your  faults  one  to  another  ?"  I  have  often 
confessed  to  you ;  come,  kneel  down,  and  confess  to  me. 
And  what  can  he  say  ? 

And  these  we  give  as  specimens  of  the  way  in  which 
the  reading  of  the  Bible  leads  men  every  where  to  the 
rejection  of  all  that  is  peculiar  to  popery,  and  leads  them 
over  to  the  broad  and  elevated  platform  of  Protestantism. 
And  do  you  wonder  that  popery  is  declining  in  all  the 
earth  when  you  remember  that  the  Bible  is  now  trans- 
lated into  upward  of  two  hundred  languages  and  dia- 
lects, and  is  circulated  among  all  people  ?  And  do  you 
wonder  at  the  opposition  of  popish  priests  to  the  Bible  ? 
They  know  that  it  exposes  their  fraud ;  and  while  they 
smile  at  the  circulation  of  the  works  of  Voltaire,  and 
Bousseau,  and  Tom  Paine,  they  follow  the  Bible  colpor- 
teur, and  make  a  bonfire  of  the  books  which  he  scatters. 
An  illustration  of  all  this  we  find  in  the  recent  popular 
movement  at  Bome.  When  the  pope  fled  the  city,  the 
Bible  entered  it,  and  was  circulated  by  thousands  ;  when 
the  pope  returned,  the  Bible  had  to  flee,  and  those  who 
put  it  into  circulation  were  punished  with  a  deeper  se- 
verity than  were  those  who  manned  the  walls,  and  no- 
bly faced  the  allied  forces  collected  by  the  father  of  the 
faithful  for  the  murder  of  his  children.  But  all  efforts 
to  arrest  its  circulation  are  in  vain ;  as  well  might  they 
attempt  to  arrest  the  sun  in  the  career  of  its  glorious 
way.  And  as  surely  as  light  is  the  death  of  darkness, 
will  the  circulation  of  the  Bible  be  the  death  of  popery. 

Another  of  these  causes  is  the  increasing  intelligence 
of  the  race.  Ignorance  is  the  soil  where  the  principles 
of  iinnerv  obtain  their  most  map-nificent  ffrowth.      This 


AND   ITS    CAUSES. 


23 


may  De  seen  by  a  glance  at  the  moral  map  of  the  world. 
The  more  intense  the  ignorance,  the  more  intense  the 
popery  ;  and  intense  popery  will  soon  produce  intense 
ignorance.  For  illustration,  we  point  you  to  Spain,  Port- 
ugal, Italy,  Mexico,  and  to  poor,  unhappy  Ireland.  And 
before  the  increasing  intelligence  of  the  masses,  popery 
retires  as  do  the  mists  of  the  morning  before  the  rising 
sun.  AVe  are  willing  to  make  great  allowance  for  the 
influence  of  early  training ;  but  no  man  must  ask  us  to 
believe  that  any  intelligent  mind  can  believe  in  the  ab- 
surdities of  popery.  Hence,  when  relieved,  in  this  coun- 
try, from  the  external  pressure  of  priestly  intolerance,  the 
better  informed  even  of  the  Irish  peasantry  smile  when 
told  that  the  pope  can  not  err  ;  that  his  power  is  supreme 
in  the  Church  ;  that  the  efficacy  of  a  sacrament  depends 
upon  the  intention  of  the  administrator ;  that  the  priest 
can  grant  an  absolute  and  judicial  absolution  from  sin; 
that  he  can  convert  a  little  flour  wafer  into  God,  and 
then  eat  him  ;  and  that  all  but  papists  are  excluded  from 
heaven.  They  are  aware  that  their  Church  teaches  some- 
thing upon  these  subjects  that  they  do  not  fully  under- 
stand, and  which  Protestants  reject ;  but,  the  more  cor- 
rect your  version  of  them,  the  more  convinced  are  they 
that  you  are  making  fun  of  their  religion ;  and  when  con- 
vinced that  such,  in  truth,  are  the  doctrines  of  their 
Church,  they  desert  it.  And  it  is  in  this  way  that  thou- 
sands in  this  and  other  lands  are  now  deserting  it.  AVhen 
the  primer,  and  the  spelling-book,  and  the  Bible  have 
found  their  way  into  all  the  earth,  the  days  of  popery 
will  be  at  an  end.  And  hence  the  opposition  of  the  Vat- 
ican to  all  schemes  for  educating  the  masses. 

Another  of  these  causes  we  find  in  the  fooleries  of  pop- 
ery. Let  it  not  be  for  a  moment  believed  that  the  ridic- 
ulous and  absurd  legends  of  the  Middle  Ages,  forged  by 
monks  for  the  edification  of  the  faithful,  are  repudiated 
by  the  papists  of  our  day.  They  are  reproduced  and  cir- 
culated in  papal  countries  for  the  benefit  of  devout  minds. 
Have  we  not  in  our  own  day  legends  as  absurd  as  the 
miracles  wrought  at  the  tomb  of  Becket — as  the  fount- 


24  THE   DECLINE   OF   POPERY 

ains  opened  by  Augustin — as  Saint  Patrick's  turning  old 
Rius  into  a  blooming  youth,  and  setting  ice  on  fire — as 
Saint  Mocha  restoring  to  life  some  stags  after  the  flesh 
was  picked  from  their  bones,  and  sending  thein  into  the 
woods — as  St.  Goar  hanging  his  cape  on  a  sunbeam — as 
St.  Fechin  causing  the  sun  to  stand  still — as  the  crows 
making  an  apology  to  St.  Cuthbert  for  carrying  away 
some  of  the  thatch  of  his  house,  and  bringing  him  some 
pork  as  a  peace  offering — as  St.  Berach  causing  willow- 
trees  to  bear  apples — as  St.  Cuana  passing  over  a  lake  on 
a  flag-stone  ?  Do  any  of  these  lying  wonders  surpass  in 
absurdity  the  yearly  liquefaction  of  the  blood  of  St.  Jan- 
uarius  at  Naples  ;  or  the  holy  robe  of  Treves  ;  or  the 
winking  Madonna  of  Rimini  ?  When  men  commence 
thinking,  they  can  not  and  they  will  not  stand  these  ab- 
surdities. Their  indignation  will  be  as  high  as  the  im- 
positions to  which  they  were  subjected  were  base ;  and 
they  will  cast  off"  with  scorn  their  priestly  deceivers,  and 
they  will  tread  beneath  their  feet  the  dogmas  and  the 
emblems  of  a  superstition  as  gross  as  any  that  God  has 
ever  permitted  to  live.  See  the  effect  already  of  the  holy 
robe  of  Treves !  It  has  led,  and  is  yet  leading  men  by 
thousands  to  desert  popery.  And  such,  also,  must  be  the 
effect  of  the  hoax  at  Rimini.  Burning  indignation  is 
very  apt  to  svicceed  the  discovery  of  gross  deception. 
Hence  we  wonder  not  when,  on  the  flight  of  the  pope, 
the  populace  went  into  the  Roman  churches,  and  brought 
out  their  confessionals,  and  crosses,  and  crucifixes,  and 
piled  them  up  in  the  street  for  a  bonfire.  And  papal 
priests  throughout  the  earth  should  read  in  this  event 
the  foreshadowing  of  their  doom.  As  long  as  they  can 
keep  the  nations  in  intellectual  childhood,  they  may 
amuse  them  with  bawbles,  and  cause  them  to  understand, 
speak,  and  act  as  children  ;  but  so  certainly  as  they  rise 
to  manhood,  they  will  put  away  childish  things. 

Another  of  these  causes  is  the  despotism  of  popery. 
The  Earl  of  Shaftesbury  was  among  the  most  philosophic 
and  far-seeing  statesmen  of  his  day.  He  often  gave  ut- 
terance to  the  following  pregnant  sentence :  "  Popery  and 


AND    ITS   CAUSES. 


25 


slavery,  like  two  sisters,  go  hand  in  hand.  Sometimes 
the  one  goes  first,  and  sometimes  the  other ;  but  when 
popery  enters,  slavery  will  soon  follow."  And  the  truth 
of  this  is  abundantly  illustrated  in  the  history  of  the  na- 
tions. The  people  it  makes  slaves  to  the  king,  and  the 
king  a  slave  to  the  Church.  It  has  sometimes  taken 
sides  with  the  people  against  their  rulers,  but  then  it  was 
to  subdue  the  rulers  to  its  yoke ;  and  when  it  has  taken 
sides  with  rulers  against  the  people,  it  was  because  the 
people  commenced  panting  after  the  possession  of  their 
natural  rights.  But,  whether  it  sided  with  princes  or 
with  people,  it  has  ever  had  but  one  object  in  view,  the 
putting  of  its  yoke  on  the  neck  of  both. 

By  the  very  nature  of  its  constitution  and  claims,  pop- 
ery is  adverse  to  free  institutions,  and,  in  proof,  we  ap- 
peal to  the  history  of  the  world  and  to  its  history.  Where 
on  earth  has  it  ever  been  ascendant,  without  throwing 
its  folds  around  civil  institutions,  and  crushing  them,  as 
the  fabled  serpents  from  the  ocean  crushed  the  sons  of 
Laocoon  ?  And  who  has  ever  resisted  its  encroachments 
without  sharing  the  fate  of  the  priest  of  Apollo  ?  Ques- 
tion the  nations  of  the  earth  as  to  this  matter.  Ask  Port- 
ugal, the  country  of  Dionysius,  of  John  II.,  and  of  De 
Gama,  what  has  made  her  what  she  is,  and  she  will 
point  to  her  swarming  priests,  to  her  mendicant  orders, 
to  their  grasping  avarice  and  minute  exactions — to  that 
all-pervading  papal  influence  which  crushes  every  thing 
on  which  it  falls.  Ask  Spain  what  has  extinguished  her 
spirit  of  chivalry,  degraded  her  mind,  paralyzed  her  power, 
and  reduced  her  from  her  once  proud  eminence  to  a  state 
so  low  that  there  is  none  to  do  her  reverence,  and  the 
Ebro  will  cry  to  the  Gruadalquivir,  and  the  Straits  of  Gib- 
raltar to  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  popery.  Ask  bleeding  Ire- 
land what  has  converted  its  noble  people  into  beggars, 
and  sown  its  fertile  fields  with  salt,  and  keeps  her  swarm- 
ing millions  in  Egyptian  darkness,  and  it  will  return  the 
same  answer,  popery.  Why  are  Mexico  and  South  Amer- 
ica, with  the  glorious  example  of  our  Republic  before 
them,  what  they  are  ?     Every  time  the  Genius  of  Liberty 


26  THE   DECLINE   OF    POPERY 

seized  his  trumpet  to  call  up  the  people  to  the  assertion 
of  their  rights,  popery  has  wrung  it  from  his  grasp.  The 
malign  influence  of  popery  upon  civil  institutions  is  its 
direct  and  necessary  influence.  When  it  acts  out  its 
heart,  it  has  but  one  way  of  acting,  and  that  is  in  the 
direct  line  of  despotism. 

That  this  is  so,  is  plain  from  events  hut  of  yesterday, 
and  from  others  that  are  now  transpiring.  When  the 
Romans  asked  a  constitutional  government  from  the 
pope,  he  refused  it.  When  he  fled,  they  established  a 
republic.  And  the  old  tyrant  invited  the  allied  armies 
of  France,  Austria,  and  Spain  to  abolish  the  republic,  to 
quell  the  spirit  of  freedom,  and  to  restore  him  to  his 
throne  and  his  triple  crown.  And  for  conduct  far  less 
base  than  that  of  Pio  Nono,  the  Congress  of  1776  de- 
clared the  King  of  England  to  be  a  "  prince  whose  char- 
acter was  marked  by  every  act  which  may  define  a  ty- 
rant." And  while  the  papists  of  our  own  land  were 
singing  their  hosannas  to  democracy,  and  were  raising 
money  to  assist  the  Irish  in  their  resistance  to  British 
rule,  yet,  from  the  archbishop  down  to  the  most  ignorant 
thumber  of  beads  before  the  pictures  of  the  saints,  they 
denounced  the  citizens  of  Rome  for  declaring  themselves 
free,  for  dethroning  the  most  arbitrary  despot  in  Europe ; 
and,  as  if  ashamed  to  go  to  God,  they  overwhelmed  the 
Virgin  with  entreaties  that  she  would  restore  him  to  his 
despotic  chair.  And  not  only  so,  but,  by  reviving  the 
"  Peter  pence,"  they  sent  from  free  America  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  dollars  to  put  bullets  into  French  and  Austrian 
cannon  for  the  purpose  of  battering  down  the  newly- 
erected  citadel  of  Roman  liberty  ! 

And  when  the  sympathy  of  all  free  hearts  was  flowing 
toward  Hungary  in  its  recent  but  fruitless  struggle  for 
independence,  and  when  the  free  earth  rang  with  aspi- 
rations for  the  success  of  Kossuth  and  his  noble  compat- 
riots, that  free  rising  and  its  noble  leader  were  denounced 
at  Rome  as  bitterly  as  at  Vienna,  and  by  papists  in  New 
York,  in  language  as  atrocious  as  the  most  hopeless  legit- 
imist could  utter.     The  freedom  of  Hungary  would  not 


AND    ITS    CAUSES.  2  7 

subserve  the  purposes  of  popery,  and  it  must  abide  in  its 
chains.  Where  this  system  can  not  rule,  it  will  ruin. 
Power  is  its  religion — despotism  is  its  creed.  And  when 
you  attempt  to  remonstrate  with  it,  it  will  answer  you 
as  did  the  confessor  of  the  Queen  of  Spain  a  nobleman 
who  set  himself  in  opposition  to  him.  "  Sir,"  said  the 
haughty  and  blasphemous  prelate  to  the  old  Castilian, 
"  sir,  you  should  fear  and  respect  the  man  who  every  day 
has  your  God  in  his  hand  and  your  queen  at  his  feet." 

This  characteristic  of  popery  is  rapidly  rising  to  the 
view  of  all  men ;  and  as  it  rises  into  light,  all  free  hearts 
are  rejecting  the  system.  On  this  ground  alone,  within 
a  few  years  it  has  been  rejected  by  the  city  of  Eome — 
by  multitudes  in  Italy  and  Germany — ^by  millions  in 
France.  And  just  in  the  proportion  that  the  spirit  of 
freedom  pervades  the  earth,  will  popery  be  rejected  where 
it  exists,  and  its  extension  be  opposed  where  it  exists  not. 

The  last  of  the  causes  which  we  shall  name  is  the  rap- 
idly increasing  and  extending  influence  of  Protestantism. 
It  is  true  that,  since  the  Reformation,  Protestantism  has 
not  done  for  the  nations  all  that,  under  other  circumstan- 
ces, it  would  have  done.  It  has  not  converted  France. 
But  why  ?  Let  the  murders  of  St.  Bartholomew's  Day 
and  the  awful  butcheries  which  succeeded  the  revocation 
of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  answer.  It  has  not  converted  Italy. 
But  why  ?  Let  the  history  of  the  Heformation  in  Italy 
answer.  It  has  not  converted  Spain.  But  why  ?  Let 
the  history  of  the  Inquisition  answer.  It  has  not  con- 
verted the  masses  of  Ireland.  But  why  ?  Let  the  awful 
Irish  massacre  of  1641,  instigated  by  the  priests,  and  the 
bitter  prejudices  they  have  kept  alive  since  among  the 
people,  answer.  Popery,  in  its  treatment  of  Protestants, 
has  become  the  synonym  of  inhumanity. 

Nor  has  Protestantism  done  what  it  might.  In  some 
countries  it  has  been  encumbered  with  state  connections 
— in  others  it  has  declined  from  the  true  faith — in  others 
it  has  lost  its  first  love — in  all  it  has  been  too  neglectful 
of  its  great  mission,  which  is  to  Christianize  and  civilize 
the  world.     But  a  brighter  day  has  risen  upon  it. 


28 


THE    DECLINE   OF    POPERY 


Yet  Protestantism  reckons  as  its  followers  nearly  one 
half  the  number  that  popery  claims  as  its  adherents. 
And  although  numerically  one  half  less,  in  all  the  great 
elements  of  character  and  progress  it  is  vastly  its  supe- 
rior. In  wealth,  in  enterprise,  in  rational  liberty,  in  lit- 
erature, in  commerce,  in  all  the  elements  of  political  and 
moral  power,  Protestant  are  to  papal  nations  as  the  sun 
and  moon  in  the  heavens  are  to  the  fixed  stars.  That 
you  may  see  this,  blot  from  the  map  of  Europe  all  that 
it  owes  to  Protestantism,  and  what  is  left  for  the  people 
to  desire  ?  Blot  from  those  nations  all  that  they  owe  to 
popery,  and  it  would  be  likb  Moses  lifting  up  his  won- 
der-working rod  heavenward,  and  rolling  back  the  dark- 
ness that  enshrouded  Egypt.  If  this  does  not  picture  our 
idea,  stop  for  a  month  or  a  year  all  that  Protestantism  is 
doing  to  civilize,  enlighten,  and  bless  the  earth,  and  the 
world  is  moved  and  astounded  from  its  center  to  its  cir- 
cumference ;  even  old  Austria,  the  Sleepy  Hollow  of  the 
world,  would  spring  to  her  feet  and  ask,  What  is  the 
matter  ?  Stop  for  the  same  time  all  that  popery  is  doing 
for  the  same  ends,  and  it  would  be  no  more  missed  than 
is  the  light  of  the  lost  pleiad  from  the  sky. 

What  means  that  wakening  attention  in  all  civilized 
states  to  the  education  and  elevation  of  the  people  ? 
What  means  that  restless  anxiety  observable  even  in  the 
most  petrified  of  papal  states  to  obtain  natural  rights, 
which  causes  hoary  error  to  shake  its  head  with  holy 
horror  ?  It  shows  the  advancing  influence  of  Protestant- 
ism. 

What  means  that  ubiquitous  influence  of  the  press, 
which  discusses  all  questions,  whether  pertaining  to 
Church  or  state,  before  the  people,  and  which  brings  out 
the  verdict  of  the  people  as  freely  upon  prince,  pope,  or 
prelate,  as  upon  the  most  obscure  of  the  people  ?  It 
shows  the  advancing  influence  of  Protestantism. 

What  mean  these  railways,  and  telegraphs,  and  ocean 
steamers,  that  are  converting  seas  into  straits,  and  that 
are  bringing  Canton  and  London,  Liverpool  and  New 

VnrV    wi+Viin    snpnlrincr   flisfa,nr»p    n.nd    that    are    briuffinST 


AND   ITS   CAUSES.  29 

nations  the  most  distant  into  acquaintance  and  brother- 
hood? They  show  the  advancing  influence  of  Protest- 
antism. 

AVhat  mean  the  vast  enterprise,  skill,  and  industry  of 
Britain— her  extended  commerce— her  empire,  upon 
which  the  sun  never  sets — her  laws,  extended  over  mill- 
ions of  India— her  protection  of  the  right  wherever  her 
flag  floats  ?  What  mean  the  opening  of  Chinar— the 
granting  of  liberty  of  conscience  by  Turkey— the  pay- 
ment of  a  Protestant  ministry  from  the  treasury  of  France  ? 
They  show  the  advancing  influence  of  Protestantism. 

What  mean  those  white  spots  on  the  moral  map  of  the 
world,  scattered  along  the  western  coast  of  Africa,  and 
all  over  British  India  and  Burmah,  and  rapidly  multi- 
plying on  the  sea-coast  of  China,  and  almost  as  numer- 
ous on  the  Pacific  as  are  its  islands  ?  They  mark  the 
advances  of  Protestantism. 

What  mean  that  expulsion  of  archbishops  from  Sardin- 
ia—that noble  address  of  the  Roman  people  to  the  pope, 
in  which  they  tell  him  that  his  claim  of  sovereignty  for 
the  chair  of  St.  Peter  reminded  them  "  of  the  fable  where 
Jove  gives  a  log  to  be  king  of  the  frogs"— the  rapid  ref- 
ormation progressing  in  western  Ireland— the  yet  grow- 
ing influence  of  the  Bonge  movement  in  Germany— the 
collecting  of  large  churches  in  some  of  our  own  cities  of 
abjuring  papists— the  growing  inquiry  among  papists  in 
all  lands  as  to  religious  things  and  truths?  All  and 
each  show  the  advancing  influence  of  Protestantism. 

What  mean  the  rising  cities  of  these  free  states— those 
national  grants  of  land  for  the  education  of  the  people— 
those  rapidly-multiplying  churches  for  the  worship  of 
God  in  every  direction — those  missionaries  that  track 
the  Indian  through  the  wilderness,  and  that  follow  the 
tide  of  emigration  in  every  direction— the  bringing  under 
our  influence  in  a  few  months  the  papal  states  of  Texas, 
New  Mexico,  and  California— the  building  of  cities  and 
churches  by  the  waves  of  the  Pacific,  and  where,  until 
recently,  nothing  in  the  way  of  religion  dare  be  lisped 


30  THE   DECLINE    OF    POPERY 

save  popish  mummeries  ?     They  mark  the  advances  of 
Protestantism. 

And,  now  that  the  power  to  make  thunder  is  gone, 
what  mean  those  grumblings  and  mutterings  of  the  Vat- 
ican, coming  in  the  way  of  rescripts  and  pastoral  let- 
ters against  Irish  colleges,  and  Bible  and  Tract  societies, 
and  the  promiscuous  education  of  papist  and  Protestant 
children?  AVhat  mean,  among  us,  the  putting  up  of 
papal  schools — the  preaching  of  priests  and  bishops — the 
importation  of  mass-mongers  with  long  coats  and  no 
brains — the  forming  of  clubs  to  sustain  lectures  whose 
objects  are  to  vilify  the  Gdspel,  and  to  prop  up  a  declin- 
ing superstition  ?  They  distinctly  mark  the  advancing 
influence  of  Protestantism. 

And  Avhat  mean  the  suppression  of  Protestant  worship 
in  Rome — the  expulsion  of  the  Bible  from  its  walls — the 
perfect  exclusion  of  all  Protestant  influences  from  the 
papal  states  of  both  the  Old  and  New  World  ?  If  Protest- 
antism is  of  feeble  influence,  and  declining  at  that,  why 
so  anxious  to  head  it  ofl"  every  where  ?  If  false  in  theory, 
and  feeble  in  power,  and  poor  in  resources,  and  endlessly 
divided  withal,  it  is  nowhere  to  be  feared.  We  call, 
then,  upon  pope,  prelates,  and  priests,  no  longer  to  act 
as  cowards  in  the  presence  of  such  a  feeble  foe.  It  can 
do  but  little,  nor  can  it  do  that  little  long.  Give  it  free 
access,  then,  to  Rome.  Tell  Spain,  and  Portugal,  and 
Italy,  and  Austria,  and  the  South  American  states,  to 
open  their  gates,  to  raise  the  port  cullis,  to  admit  this 
declining  system  to  enter,  and  without  let  or  hinderance 
to  try  its  strength.  Tell  them  as  freely  to  admit  Protest- 
antism as  Protestant  states  admit  popery.  Will  they 
do  it  ?  If  not,  then  we  nail  to  the  counter  as  a  priestly 
falsehood  all  that  they  utter  as  to  "  the  decline  of  Prot- 
estantism ;"  and  the  man  who  a  few  weeks  ago  made 
this  the  theme  of  a  lecture,  whose  feebleness  is  only 
equaled  by  its  falsehood,  and  who  has  since  harangued 
in  London  on  the  liberality  of  Protestantism,  is  probably 
at  this  very  hour  counseling  the  cardinals,  instead  of 


AND   ITS   CAUSES.  31 

opening  these  nations,  to  put  new  locks  on  all  their 
doors. 

But  this  man  has  gone  for  his  pallium.     Do  you  wish 
to  know  what  a  pallium  is  ?     At  first  it  was  a  woolen 
mantle  sent  hy  the  Roman  emperors  to  the  higher  eccle- 
siastics as  a  badge  of  dignity ;  now  it  is  a  woolen  hand, 
three  or  four  fingers  broad,  worn  outside  the  vestments. 
It  is  made  by  the  nuns  of  the  convent  of  St.  Agnes,  and 
from  the  wool  of  consecrated  sheep.     For  this  bawble, 
the  bestowal  of  which  by  the  pope  is  necessary  to  the 
right  exercise  of  the  functions  of  an  archbishop,  the  re- 
ceiver must  pay  his  holiness  a  very  large  sum.     Nor  is  it 
bestowed  save  on  the  giving  of  the  most  solemn  pledges 
of  canonical  obedience  to  the  Holy  See.    When  our  friend 
returns,  wearing  this  fillet  made  from  the  wool  of  holy 
sheep,  the  faithful  expect  that  Protestantism  will  pale 
in  the  presence  of  this  silly  gewgaw  from  the  convent  of 
St.  Agnes  !    This  is  the  ridiculous  side  of  the  affair.    But 
it  has  a  serious  one.    This  thing  of  bishops  going  to  Rome 
for  vestments  and  investiture  convulsed  kingdoms  in  the 
Middle  Ages.     And  why  ?     Because  of  their  swearing 
allegiance  to  Rome,  and  renouncing  their  own  sovereigns. 
This  is  the  view  of  the  matter  which  now  so  intensely 
agitates  England.     Let  a  serious  rupture  between  Brit- 
ain and  Rome  now  take  place,  and  Wiseman  will  treat 
Victoria  as  Becket  treated  Henry  II. ;  the  cardinal  would 
be  the  commander-in-chief  of  the  pope  in  the  British 
isles.     Should  a  serious  rupture  occur  between  us  and 
Rome,  the  man  with  the  fillet  made  from  the  wool  of 
holy  sheep  would  be  here  the  feudal  baron  and  liege  lord 
of  the  pope,  to  maintain  the  claims  of  the  most  contempt- 
ible despotism  that  earth  knows,  in  the  very  heart  of  free 
America,  and  under  the  shadow  of  the  flag  which  secures 
to  him  that  liberty  of  conscience  which  popery  in  power 
nowhere  reciprocates. 

But  we  must  close.  Popery  has  rapidly  and  is  rapidly 
declining.  There  was  a  time  when,  if  it  was  not  re- 
spected, it  was  feared.  But  it  is  not  so  now.  The  force 
r»f  Uc  fcir>Q+ir>icTYi  i«  snpnf.  nnrl  nnfelt.     While  all  other 


32        THE  DECLINE  OF  POPERY,  ETC. 

institutions  are  rising  with  the  progress  of  society,  this 
continues  petrified.  It  is  like  a  vessel  bound  by  a  heavy 
anchor  and  a  short  iron  cable  to  the  bottom  of  the  stream, 
while  the  tide  of  knowledge  and  freedom  are  rising 
around  it.  Its  spiritual  tariff — its  restrictions  on  the 
commerce  of  thought — its  taxes  on  the  bread  of  life — its 
efforts  to  bring  seats  in  heaven  into  the  priestly  market 
— ^its  mimic  immolations  of  the  Son  of  God — its  sacrifice 
of  the  people  for  the  sake  of  the  priest — its  nameless  ex- 
actions and  endless  tyrannies,  are  not  much  longer  to  be 
borne.  The  Lord  will  coj^sume  it  with  the  breath  of  his 
mouth,  and  will  destroy  it  with  the  brightness  of  his 
rising. 

"  Though  well  perfumed  and  elegantly  dressed, 
Like  an  unburied  carcass  tricked  with  flowers, 
'Tis  but  a  garnished  nuisance." 

From  every  tower  of  Zion  the  watchmen  should  lift 
up  their  voices  together,  and  cry  to  the  peoplq  that  they 
have  nothing  to  fear.  The  world  is  not  to  be  educated 
back  again  to  the  intelligence  of  the  Dark  Ages.  While 
popery  may  be  compared  to  a  decrepid,  nervous,  and 
wrinkled  old  man,  whose  hearing  is  obtuse,  and  whose 
memory  is  short,  and  who,  heedless  and  forgetful  of  the 
events  passing  around  him,  is  always  prattling  about  the 
past,  Protestantism  is  strong,  and  active,  and  zealous, 
and  enterprising,  and  attractive,  and  looking  to  the  fu- 
ture. The  mind  of  the  world  is  with  it.  Reason  is  with 
it.  The  literature  of  the  world  is  with  it.  The  Bible  is 
.with  it.  God  is  with  it.  The  entire  current  of  civiliza- 
tion is  with  it.  And  all  these  are  against  popery.  The 
combat  may  be  protracted,  but  the  victory  is  certain. 
Nor,  in  the  conflict,  will  the  cause  of  popery  be  much 
aided  by  the  support,  nor  will  the  cause  of  Protestantism 
be  any  weakened  by  the  assaults,  of  those  whose  chief 
aim  and  grand  ambition  is  to  wear  a  fillet  made  from 
the  wool  of  holy  sheep. 


ICl 


